


Endless Summers with You

by TrisPrior



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Age Difference, Aokaga is life, Aokaga is love, Coming of Age, Fluff, Growing Up, M/M, Slow Burn, nothing weird happens while Kagami is underage
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:48:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23481229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrisPrior/pseuds/TrisPrior
Summary: When Kagami met Aomine, he was 6 and Aomine was 14. An unlikely friendship ensued.Where would this strange companionship take them through the years? Would they end up drifting apart or would their friendship stand the test of time?
Relationships: Aomine Daiki/Kagami Taiga
Comments: 22
Kudos: 78





	1. 12 Years Ago

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this lovely piece of artwork (artist unfortunately unknown):  
> 

The sun was burning low in the sky. Cicadas were chirping somewhere far off, a couple of birds were flying overhead. Hardly any cars on the street; it was late enough for most people to already be home, or (if you were one of those unlucky ones that worked into the night) not yet late enough to call it a day.

Kagami Taiga was breathing heavily as he ran along the empty sidewalk guiding him home. Once again he had lost track of time with his best friend, Tatsuya Himuro. As had become the norm, they had walked home together and went up to Tatsuya’s apartment to do their homework. Then, their textbooks filled with hiragana that were almost indecipherable, they had raced each other outside to claim the swing set on the nearby playground, both boys swinging their legs harder each time, to see who would be able to go higher. It was Kagami who had won today.

They had talked about their day, about school and anything else that came to mind until the window on the third floor had opened and Mrs. Tatsuya had called her son inside. Dinner was ready. The friendly soul she was, she had offered for Kagami to join them, but the redhead had declined, his head bowing to express his gratitude, as he’d been taught. He wasn’t supposed to impose on others; besides, perhaps his parents would be home from work tonight for dinner. Perhaps he wouldn’t be eating alone. If they weren’t coming home, then he knew where the onigiris and the apple juices were stored. Where they always were. The bottom shelf of the fridge, easily accessible, even at his height. But what he wouldn’t give for one of his mother’s home cooked curries…

He was about to round a corner when something round and orange bounced out onto the sidewalk right in front of him. Startled, Kagami stopped just in front of it, and then he reached out to grab the ball in both hands and inspect it. Its leather was well worn and use on the asphalt had dulled the once bright orange, dust having collected all over it. A voice called out to him from his right.

“Oi, can you pass that back over here?”

When Kagami turned around, he saw a kid, more like a teenager it seemed, standing on a basketball court and holding his hand up for the ball. From the looks of it he must have been here for a while – his hair was wet from the heat and pushed back from his forehead. The light blue button up shirt of his school uniform looked about as sweaty as his hair – the white cardigan lay forgotten on the side of the court.

“Oh, um…yes.”

Kagami stepped up to the court, lifted the ball up to his chest and threw it towards the teen standing in the middle of the court. The ball bounced a couple of times before reaching the teen who picked it up in one large hand. Kagami watched as he dribbled the ball, then lifted it up over his head and shot it towards the hoop closer to him in one smooth motion. It went through without even catching the rim. The blue-haired teen dashed forward to catch the ball just after it hit the ground, dribbling it all the way across the court only to jump up and dunk it through the other hoop.

Kagami watched all of this with wide eyes and his mouth in a soft O-shape. He wasn’t sure why, but the way this guy was playing basketball had something fascinating about it. None of the kids at his Elementary school played like this; not even the older ones in 5thor 6thgrade. Quite clearly this guy had been doing this for a long time. Kagami watched for another few moments before he took off his backpack and set it aside, cautiously taking a few steps closer. It took the teenager a minute and another dunk to realize he wasn’t the only one on the court anymore. Breathing heavily, he paused his dribbling and tilted his head to one side.

“You need something?”

Kagami’s cheeks were pink with shyness, his fists twisting around the hem of his shirt.

“Can I play?”

The teen’s eyebrows rose and he started laughing out loud, the ball dropped at his side and with both his arms folding over his stomach, for a full ten seconds. When he started to quiet down, he realized the child hadn’t moved from his spot. The look on his face hadn’t changed at all – if anything, it had become somewhat more defiant. But the chubby cheeks looked a darker shade of red than they had before.

“You’re serious.” It was a statement, though a confused one, not a question.

“It looks fun!”

The teen sighed and tilted his head backwards to stare up at the sky that was still blue, but would soon enough start changing colors. Well, if he was being honest then he was quite tired already, but not ready to go home to his broken-ass excuse for a family just yet. Instead of aimlessly wandering the streets as he normally would, he might as well show the kid how to play basketball. Lifting his head back up again, he took a few steps towards the redhead, staring him down. The child, seeming somewhat reluctant, shuffled his feet on the ground nervously, but to his credit he did not avert his eyes from the teenager – who was at least 2 feet taller than him.

“Your parents never taught you not to talk to strangers?”

This seemed to catch the child off guard; it did make him avert his eyes, but he replied after thinking about it for a few seconds, his gaze fixed back on the teen’s.

“What’s your name?”

“Aomine Daiki.”

“Ok…I’m Kagami Taiga. Now we’re not strangers anymore!”

Aomine snorted in amusement, shook his head and bounced the ball off the ground again, catching it in his large palm without ever moving his gaze away from the child. He tilted his head to the other side.

“Smart kid you are. How old are you, anyway?”

“I’m almost seven!”

“So you’re _six_.”

The child, Kagami, pouted and looked at the ball Aomine was bouncing smoothly off the ground and back up into his palm, again and again. Still, he did not let up.

“Can…can you teach me?”

Aomine heaved another sigh and caught the ball back in both his hands.

“Fine, Kagami Taiga. I’ll teach you.”

Aomine Daiki had never taught anyone how to play basketball. Or taught anyone anything, for that matter, seeing as he wasn’t generally the most knowledgeable person around in...well, pretty much any given subject. As it turned out, teaching was both harder and easier than he thought it would be. For one, Kagami wasn’t as completely clueless as he had expected. He knew very well how to bounce the ball in one hand, though somewhat clumsily still, and that he was supposed to get the ball into the hoop that was not on his side of the court.

On the other hand, he really didn’t quite have a grasp of the rules just yet.

“Kagami, you _can’t_ walk when you’re holding the ball in both hands!”

The redhead seemed confused.

“Why not?”

“It’s called travelling, it’s not allowed.”

“They let us do it at school!”

“Well, that’s 'cuz they’re stupid and they don’t know the rules of the game.”

“Oh…ok.”

For the most part, it was quite amusing and almost fun, if he dared say so (not that he would admit it if anyone were to ask). When it became clear that though enthusiastic, the redhead didn’t really know what he was doing, Aomine started off by telling Kagami all about the rules in the easiest way he could muster. Which wasn’t too hard, because Aomine wasn’t one for big words either. Or a thinker, for that matter. He taught Kagami all about the most important rules before he let the other try and shoot some hoops again.

This was proving to be more difficult than he thought. As short as Kagami was and how little experience he seemed to have, he wasn’t able to even as much as hit the rim. The closest he got to it was when the ball would scrape against the bottom of the net hanging from the hoop.

“Hey, you’re not bad.” Aomine tried his best to be encouraging (something that even Satsuki hadn’t seen since their childhood days) when he saw the frustrated look on the heavily breathing kid’s face. “You’ll make a basket soon enough.”

“But…I wanted to score _now_...”

There was a pout on Kagami’s face and he ran to pick up the ball once more. It was clear from the way his steps slowed down that he was getting tired and wasn’t going to shoot a basket anytime soon, so Aomine decided to take pity on him.

“Ok, let’s try it like this...”

With two strong hands, he picked Kagami up below both arms and held him up as high as he could; with quite some effort too, because even for such a young child, Kagami still weighed a lot. Besides, Aomine had spent the better part of the afternoon running around the court already. It wasn’t for naught, though, because Kagami giggled and was able to successfully shoot the ball through the hoop like this.

“Yeah!”

“Nice job,” Aomine grunted and put the redhead back to his feet, inhaling and exhaling a deep breath again when he had straightened up. “Well, I think that’s enough training. I’m sure you’ll be a pro in no time.”

Something about the way Kagami beamed up at him at those words made Aomine feel good. Not in the way that beating everybody else at basketball had, at first, once upon a time. More like…accomplished. In a way that he assumed an artist would feel satisfied when they finished another art piece.

He hadn’t been having the greatest of times lately. It was his second year of Junior High and consequently the second year with his current basketball team and he was starting to lose interest in the sport. As a team sport, that was. He could honestly say that he would much rather run around an empty court by himself and score basket after basket without anyone standing in his way, rather than having an opponent that didn’t even _try_ to step into his way to stop him, whenever the score difference got too big. There was no doubt they were going to win all of their games this year and it just…wasn’t as fun as it used to be.

But maybe, if he had gotten a young soul interested in basketball today – as cheesy and lame as that sounded (he blamed Satsuki for the stupid cheesy movies she dragged him to) – then he felt as though he had at least accomplished something with his day. And with that tuft of bright red hair running all over the court, today hadn’t felt quite as grey as the past few days had.

The redhead picked up the ball and bounced it back over at Aomine, then ran to the edge of the court where he had left his belongings. He put on his backpack and waved an arm in goodbye.

“Thank you, Aomine! See you!”

Aomine didn’t say anything, just lifted a hand in greeting and watched as the kid ran off on his way, the footsteps getting quieter and quieter until once again, the only thing he could hear was the far off noise of cars and cicadas. Heaving a heavy sigh, Aomine gathered his own belongings as well and stepped off the court

The sky was a brilliant orange in the distance, though dark blue was starting to seep into it behind him, and the sun stood low on the horizon. His parents would have long since returned home by now – would they wonder where he was? Probably not, seeing how Aomine had been staying out late for the better portion of the past couple of years at this point. So long as they weren’t in a bad mood, he should be fine.

He felt his phone buzz in his pocket and pulled it out to check who was texting him; as he had guessed, it was one of the only two people still texted him regularly.

_ [7:54 PM] Kuroko Tetsuya _

_Aomine-kun,_

_I just wanted to check if you are ok. You seemed upset today at practice?_

_\- Kuroko_

Aomine looked up at the setting sun and realized he had all but forgotten about the fight he’d had with some of the Miracles earlier at practice, just before he had stormed out of the gym to come to this court. He typed a quick reply with one thumb and then shoved the phone back into his jeans pocket.

_ [7:55 PM] Aomine Daiki _

_i’m fine. didn’t mean to yell._

He felt his phone buzz once more a minute later, but didn’t pull it out to check this time around. Kuroko was a gentle soul who never held his temper against him. Much unlike the other Miracles, who were usually fed up whenever Aomine was in one of his moods. In his opinion, they were lucky he was still bothering to come to practice at all.

With a sigh he hoisted his bag over his shoulder and made his way back home, just hoping that he wouldn’t have to talk to his parents between eating dinner and going to bed.

* * * * *

The next day after school, Tatsuya was not able to play with Kagami for as long as they usually liked to. His mother had planned for them to go visit his grandmother, so Kagami bid his goodbyes and slowly made his way back home. His mother had already told him this morning not to wait up. She had an important business meeting out of town that wouldn’t allow her to be home before the next day and his father had to leave for a trip on short notice earlier this morning.

There was no use in hurrying home; nobody was going to be waiting for him.

He was just checking the side pocket of his backpack to assure the key to his front door was still there (if he lost it, there were always the neighbors that had been given a spare key for exactly this case) when he heard the telltale sound of a ball being bounced off of concrete.

Kagami slowed his steps and peered around the bushes and trees covering most of the outside of the court, save for the entrance. Much to his delight, it was the same guy he had met yesterday – Aomine, was it? The redheaded child took a few hesitant steps forward and onto the court, watching the teen as he dashed across the court, jumping up and dunking the ball with both hands. His fingertips caught the rim of the hoop. He held onto it for a moment, and then he let himself drop back to his feet. He lazily stepped to the side where the basketball had landed, as if none of what he’d just done was a big deal, but definitely screamed _cool_ in Kagami’s mind.

When Aomine straightened up again, he caught sight of a silhouette moving on the other side of the court from the corner of his eye. He turned his head for a split second, having half a mind to nag at whoever was there to go find their own damn court; then he did a double take in confusion. Really, he hadn’t expected to see this kid ever again in his life.

“You again?” he asked, bouncing the ball up and down as he approached the middle of the court. Kagami beamed.

“Can you teach me some more?” he asked excitedly, taking a few shy steps forward as well. Aomine rolled his eyes.

“I’m not a teacher, kid.”

“Please?” Kagami took another step forward, the smile on his face slowly disappearing to make way for a near-pout; that alone was enough to make Aomine’s stomach twist with guilt.

“None of the kids at my school are as good as you…”

“Ugh,” Aomine groaned and tilted his head back in an attempt not to see the puppy dog eyes Kagami was unconsciously (or purposely?) giving him, but it was too late. He had already seen them and he wasn’t about to risk making a little kid cry by telling him off. God knows what would happen to him, a very much delinquent and mischievous looking teen, if anyone saw him making a frickin’ child cry. Besides, if he was honest with himself, he didn’t really have anything better to do and seeing how he’d already started his coaching, well…

“I _guess_ I can teach you a little bit more.”

“Yes, thank you!” Kagami jumped excitedly, running to the side of the court to carelessly chuck down his backpack before he raced back to the middle of the court, facing Aomine whose face now looked just a little more amused than annoyed. “What’s next?”

* * * * *

Aomine wasn’t sure how it happened, but somehow he appeared to be turning into Kagami’s coach. He spent most of his afternoons after school or practice (ok, sometimes _instead_ of practice) on this same court and more often than not, Kagami would pass it some time after Aomine had arrived, on his way home from Tatsuya, his best friend, as he had told Aomine, who had done nothing to hide his disinterest in the subject (yet had retained this piece of information nonetheless).

And every time that he heard the basketball, Kagami would come running onto the court, watch the blue-haired teen for a minute or so, and then beg for Aomine to teach him more basketball.

At the start it had just been a way for Aomine to keep busy, but a few weeks into it, he had to admit that it had gotten to be sort of…rewarding, if that was the right word.

Sure, Kagami still very much sucked – not that Aomine had the heart to tell that to the kid, especially when the redhead looked so full of pride whenever Aomine told him he was doing a good job.

But at the very least, the redhead was learning to play by the rules Aomine was teaching him, he was getting better at dribbling and he would always try to improve whatever the teen pointed out.

* * * * *

It was the summer break and Aomine was spending a lot less time outside. Or rather, he tried to spend as much time as he could _inside_ , away from the sweltering, humid heat. For once, he was able to spend his week days at home when both of his parents were at work, and he didn’t have to worry about there being a fight. He would spend the majority of his time in bed; that was, whenever Satsuki or Kuroko didn’t drop by to drag him out of the house.

Then there was the much dreaded summer basketball training camp, which had proven to be an absolute torture and just a little bit of a train wreck. Just spending practice with the other Miracles was a test of Aomine’s patience on mostly any given day, but spending a full week 24/7 with the team…it had been on a whole other level entirely. It was at least once per day that Aomine and one of the other Miracles had clashed over any little argument. They would start yelling at each other until the blue-haired teen took off, fueled by his anger, and hid out somewhere until dinnertime.

To his relief both Kuroko and Momoi seemed to have decided that giving him a break after this whole ordeal was for the best. They let him lazy around for most of the rest of summer vacation and left him alone whenever he told them he wasn’t in the mood to go anywhere.

Much unlike him, Kagami spent as much of his summer vacation outside as he could. More often than not he would hang out with Tatsuya on the playground, or sometimes even on a basketball court when he could convince him. Deep down, he was hoping that maybe one day Aomine would be on _their_ usual court when he passed it on his way home, but he had no luck. It almost seemed as though the teen had disappeared for the summer vacation. Perhaps he had gone off to a different city, or a different country entirely...

Nonetheless, Kagami was determined to improve and show off his skills to Aomine whenever it was that he would see the other again.

“How are you so good at this?!”

Tatsuya sounded frustrated as he stood bent over with both hands resting on his knees (each of which was sporting a colorful band-aid) and panting for air. For the fifth time in a row, Kagami had out-dribbled him with his basketball and managed to score by dunking the ball through the hoop. Of course, the basketball hoops on the playground were much lower than the ones on the court Aomine would play on, but that didn’t mean Kagami was trying any less – or that he felt any less pride in his achievement.

A big grin on his face, Kagami grabbed the ball from where it had stopped and raced back onto the court to meet his best friend.

“I’ve got a couch!”

Tatsuya snorted under his heavy breathing and gave him a funny look.

“A _couch_?”

“Yeah!”

“You mean a _coach_. A couch is what you sit on.” Kagami blushed.

“Oh. Well- whatever. Stop laughing!”

Tatsuya straightened to stand upright again, still giggling about his friend’s mistake.

“Ok, sorry. So…who is teaching you?” he asked while he watched Kagami dribble the ball and try for a 3-pointer, but the ball bounced off the rim and the redhead was once again chasing after it.

“His name’s Aomine and he’s really cool! He’s like, old and he knows everything about basketball!”

“How old is he?” Tatsuya asked curiously and caught the ball when Kagami bounced it off the ground towards him.

“I dunno. Like, at least, like…thirteen?”

“That’s not old…my grandma is over sixty, she’s old!”

Kagami shrugged and in turn caught the ball when Tatsuya threw it back at him, bouncing it from one hand to the ground and then to his other hand, like Aomine had showed him. They played a little while longer until Tatsuya was getting tired of it, and they instead took their seats on the swing sets.

“Yui-chan told me that Sakura-chan has a crush on you,” Tatsuya said offhandedly as they were both swinging their legs back and forth. With a blush rising to his cheeks, Kagami glanced over at him, glad that his best friend wasn’t looking back at him to see it.

“Oh? W-well I heard that Hina-chan likes _you_ ,” he countered to keep the subject away from the girl who had recently taken to sitting right next to him whenever they were playing together. Now he knew why she had been doing that.

“I know,” Tatsuya said matter of factly. “She’s my girlfriend!”

“Oh?”

Kagami was surprised. And maybe a little impressed.

“Yeah! We promised that, when we’re all grown up and old, we’re gonna marry each other!”

“But you have to be _really_ old to get married,” Kagami chimed in with a hum, biting his lower lip in thought. “Like, at least as old as Aomine.”

Tatsuya seemed thoughtful for a minute.

“Maybe you can marry Sakura-chan when you’re older. Since she likes you. Do you like her?”

Kagami lightly shook his head as he kept swinging back and forth, thinking about the girl in his class whose name matched her rose-colored hair.

“I want to marry Aomine,” he said, blushing a little more still when he heard Tatsuya laugh out loud at his words.

“But, you can’t marry him…he’s a _boy_.”

“ _So_?”

“So…I dunno? You said he’s old. You’ll be married to an _old_ person, hahaha!”

“Hey, don’t be mean!”

Despite his words, Kagami joined in with Tatsuya’s laughter, but his mind was only half there when his best friend started talking about his new girlfriend again and how they had held hands while playing together the other day. Tatsuya may have laughed at him, but Kagami was sure of it. From what he knew, you had to spend a lot of time with the person you were married to, and so you had to like them a lot.

So if he were to ever get married to anyone, then he would like for it to be Aomine.

* * * * *

“Aomine! Hey, Aomine!”

“Hm? Oh, hey kid.”

For once, Aomine wasn’t up and playing on the court; instead, he was lying on the warm ground with his backpack tucked underneath his head as a makeshift pillow. With his (somewhat smelly) gym clothes stuffed inside, it didn’t make a too shabby one either. It simply was much too hot to even move a muscle these days, and napping was still his second favorite activity after basketball. Or, well…his _third_ favorite activity.

“Hi!”

Kagami excitedly ran over to where Aomine was lying. He hadn’t seen the teen in several weeks now, not once during all of summer vacation (which had felt like a small eternity). Whenever Kagami had passed the court, he would find it either empty or occupied by a group of different teenagers that he did not feel like interrupting or even talking to. School had started again a couple of days ago and finally, on a Thursday afternoon in early September, he had caught sight of Aomine on the court again.

The redhead’s face appeared upside down above the teen’s, a toothy smile showing him that Kagami was missing one of his front teeth, making Aomine grin back just a little in obvious amusement.

“Wow, you lost a tooth?”

“Yeah, I lost it last week. And guess what!”

“What?”

“I’m seven now!”

“Wow, congrats. Happy belated birthday.” Aomine pushed himself onto his elbows and Kagami straightened up so they wouldn’t bump heads. The grin never left his face as he curiously tilted his head to the side.

“How old are you, Aomine?”

“Just turned 15 a few days ago.”

“Woah…you’re old.”

Aomine’s mouth dropped open in shock and utter disbelief.

“ _Wha_ -?! You little shit.”

“That’s a bad word!”

“Well, I’m _old_ apparently, so I get to use it.”

Kagami giggled in childish amusement at Aomine’s deadpan expression and his monotonous tone of voice; then he dropped his backpack next to Aomine’s before he grabbed the basketball lying beside it forgotten.

“I’ve been practicing a lot of basketball with Tatsuya! You wanna see?”

“Sure.”

Slowly and lazily, Aomine got back up, not really in the mood to move, but somehow still glad to see the kid again. He was a nice change of pace from everyone else around him that apparently still had expectations of who he was supposed to be and how he was supposed to act or behave. The teachers, his teammates, his coach, hell even frickin’ Satsuki was always nagging at him for _something_ …But this kid, all he expected from Aomine was to learn more about and play some basketball, and Aomine felt like he could live with that.

“Let’s see how you’ve been doing, then.”

Kagami smiled and started dribbling.

* * * * *

Slowly and almost unnoticeably, as it always did, summer turned to fall. First the unbearable heat became more bearable, and the sun started to set a little earlier than it had the week before. The rainy days started to decrease in numbers, as did the short sleeves and summery dresses worn out on sunny weekends, replaced in large by jeans and sweaters.

More often than not, Kagami kept his sweatshirt on until around halfway through what Aomine called ‘warm-up drills’ – which happened to be Kagami’s least favorite part of training, but also proved to be the most effective. The weather was still great and it was sunny, but the sky was usually darkening by the time Aomine got out of school and to the court. It was late Friday afternoon in November that Aomine told Kagami he wasn’t going to be coming to the court anymore; it seemed like the right thing to do, because he knew for a fact the redhead would be looking for him and wondering where he was, should he simply choose not show up.

“But…why?”

The redhead’s lower lip stuck out in a bit of a pout, but it was different from his usual frustrated one; clearly he did not understand why Aomine would say something like that. It was making him feel a little bit insecure too, not that he had the words to explain this, but his face was proof enough.

Was the teen done teaching him? But, he wasn’t a pro yet…he wouldn’t even be able to stand a chance against Aomine in a game. Perhaps Aomine didn’t like having him around anymore. After all, there weren’t many teenagers that hung out with kids his age. Kagami knew that it might have been seen as a little bit strange, but speaking for himself, he’d never cared about what anyone would think. Perhaps Aomine had decided that he just wasn’t good enough at basketball…

His face must have told a whole story, because there was a look of something not unlike that of worry that fleetingly crossed over Aomine’s face.

“Well, because it’s gonna be winter soon. Look - you’re already getting the sniffles-“ As if to prove his point, Kagami wiped his nose on the hem of his t-shirt right this second, “-your parents would be furious if they found out you’re getting sick because you’re playing basketball out in the cold.”

Kagami’s face didn’t look any happier. In fact, mixed in with the insecurity there appeared to be frustration now.

“They wouldn’t care.”

“Shut up, of course they would.”

“They’re not even here most of the time!”

Aomine didn’t reply for a couple of moments. He _had_ been wondering sometimes how Kagami never got in trouble when they got a little too carried away with their basketball practice and stayed out way too late for a 7-year-old, because surely this kid must have had some kind of curfew, even if his parents were lenient; or that they were not at all worried about their child associating with a complete stranger (not that he could really be called that anymore), because surely Kagami, as talkative as he was, must have been telling them about him.

As it turned out, he did not have a curfew, or many rules to begin with. If the parents weren’t there to enforce them, then what was the point in giving the kid any set of rules?

The redhead’s gaze was turned to the ground now, his shoulders slumped and his eyebrows – though funny looking, split halfway as they were –were turned upwards in the saddest frown.

“Oh, come on. It’ll be spring in no time and we can hang out and play again, yeah?”

Aomine wasn’t sure just why he’d said that. Why would he worry about some random child’s feelings? Did he care whether Kagami would be upset? The deep, hidden truth was, yes. Yes, he would. As hard and uncaring as Aomine usually was, or pretended to be (according to Satsuki), he didn’t have the heart to tell a kid off whose only wish was some of his time, to learn how to become better at basketball. And it wasn’t like he had made great or otherwise productive use of his time before that, anyway…

His words at least seemed to have some positive effect, because Kagami raised his gaze back up to face Aomine, looking not nearly as frustrated as he had seconds ago.

“Promise…?”

“Promise. Until then, you can play basketball at the gym in your school. How’s that sound?”

Now, Kagami was all smiles again and nodding enthusiastically. Spring was a long time away, longer than he could fathom just yet, but he had had many a lesson from Aomine so far, several times a week. He was already better than Tatsuya and any other kid in his class, possibly even some of the older kids, and in his eyes there was a newfound determination. He was going to keep practicing and keep improving, and perhaps in spring he would be good enough to beat Aomine! Or, well, to really play against him, at least.

“I’ll make sure to improve a lot! So I can finally beat you!”

Aomine snorted and shook his head in ridicule. With one hand he grabbed his backpack and slung it over his shoulder – with the other, he reached out and ruffled the kid’s hair, speaking over the disgruntled noise of said kid over said action.

“We’ll see about that. You take care of yourself now, kid.”

To Aomine’s own surprise, he really did mean that last part.

Kagami grinned and, with his own backpack thrown over one shoulder much like Aomine always did it, waved at his friend when they had left the court, both of them going their separate ways. At the corner of the street, Kagami stopped and spun around, watching the retreating figure of the teen.

And as he watched him leave, Kagami thought to himself that spring couldn’t come soon enough.


	2. 11 Years Ago

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone for the lovely comments <3.

The sneezing kids all around him with masks covering their faces and clearly suffering from pollen allergies were a telltale sign that spring had finally arrived. That, and the fact that Kagami found himself walking up to school next to Tatsuya while pink cherry blossoms that had fallen from the trees by the dozen were blown their way. As if they were welcoming them to the start of their second year of Elementary school.

Second grade really wasn’t that much different from the first grade, if you asked Kagami. If not for their spring break, it would have hardly felt any different. The entrance ceremony however was really nice, and he did feel a surge of pride at the fact that him and his peers were no longer the youngest ones around. There were shorter kids walking the halls now (even though Kagami had never been one of the shortest to begin with). They looked confused and a little bit shy, even lost at times – sort of like he had felt on his first day of school. He hadn’t known anybody, had been apprehensive of what was to come.

Now, he had a whole handful of friends in his class (including his best friend) to return to, to greet hello, and talk about how they had spent their spring vacation.

It had gotten warmer over the past couple of weeks. It didn’t really ever snow in Tokyo (in fact, Kagami couldn’t remember the last time he’d even seen snow stick to the ground if it did end up snowing), but it had been quite cold the past few months, so cold that Kagami always pulled his scarf up to his nose, his hands covered in a pair of thick mittens and his red hair poking out from underneath a thick, woolen and equally red beanie.

Winter had just taken such an excruciatingly long time to pass. Not only did Kagami miss basketball, which he would always play in gym class when he was allowed to or else during break time, but he had also missed the sun. Sure, it didn’t rain a lot, but it was often bleary and the sun didn’t stay out for as long as he would have liked it to. Not to mention Mrs. Himuro often told her son and his friend not to play outside, because she was worried they would catch a cold. For as much as the two boys protested and pouted, Kagami secretly thought that it was quite nice to have someone worry about him like that.

Now it was early April. The sun was starting to rise a lot earlier and it seemed to him as if it were shining just a little brighter. A little warmer. Friendlier. As if it, too, were happy that spring had finally come.

Other than that, not much had changed that he could tell. Classes started off pretty much where they had left off a few weeks ago. Life continued much the same.

Except for the part where Kagami was on his way home from school. By now he was used to heading straight home after doing his homework and having some playtime with Tatsuya, ready to eat whatever food for dinner that he could find in the fridge, and he thought that today would be just the same.

But there it was, that familiar sound of leather hitting concrete.

Slow and regular at first, then increasingly faster and louder and finally, a swishing noise of a net followed by what sounded like the skidding of shoes hitting concrete and the sound of a ball bouncing off somewhere on the ground.

Kagami was running before he was even thinking about it, checking both sides of the road not as well as he knew he should have before he dashed across the street, down the sidewalk, around the hedge, up the steps and-

“Aomine!”

The dribbling noises stopped, and the blue-haired teen turned around with a strange look on his face.

He hadn’t been expecting to meet anybody on this court today, especially not this little redheaded ball of energy. To be perfectly honest, he would have thought this kid hardly even remembered him at this point, let alone his _name_. Certainly, your memory at this age wasn’t all that great, was it? Aomine at least didn’t remember a whole lot of his childhood at that age…so, wouldn’t that mean he was right? Yet that strange look on Aomine’s face was replaced quickly by one of recognition, and even a small quirk to his lips. Perhaps he had underestimated the memory of a 7- or, well, soon to be 8-year-old, as the redhead would say.

“Yo, Kagami.”

The kid jogged over to where he was standing, his backpack jumping up and down on his back, and grinning a wide, toothy smile up at him. The gap in his teeth from a while ago was barely visible now; it seemed as though the tooth was just short of having fully grown in. Unfortunately for Kagami, he must have lost the tooth right next to it only a short while ago, leaving him with yet another missing tooth and a row of comically different sized teeth. Not that the kid seemed anything less than proud about it, but it did look funny.

“How’ve you been?” The teen was surprised to find himself asking that question, and even more surprised that he actually really did care at all. Though a simple question, it elicited a whole stream of words from Kagami’s mouth.

“Great! I can write a lot of things now, and we learn so much at school. And I played basketball every week and sometimes I got to pick what we played in gym class and I said I wanted to play basketball! And I got a really cool jersey for Christmas! I have to show you when it’s warmer – and did you see, my Mom said that I grew like, a whole inch!”

All of that bubbled out of Kagami while the kid threw down his backpack and slipped his uniform sweater over his head to let it join the discarded backpack. Once he stopped talking, he turned to look at Aomine who was wearing a rather dull expression underneath which there was just a hint of amusement. This child certainly liked to talk.

“Huh. Don’t look any taller to me.”

Kagami pouted, and puffed out his chest as if to make himself look taller.

“I did grow, though!”

“Well, ya see: I grow, too. So, you don’t look taller in comparison,” he explained, a cocky smirk on his face as he bounced the ball on the floor once, then turned to toss it through the hoop once again. It went straight through the middle, only ever touching the net and then hitting the ground.

“Oh.”

Guessing from his tone of voice, Kagami had never considered that possibility. Gosh, kids really were kind of stupid, weren’t they? He watched the kid race off to fetch the ball, the perceived insult about his height all but forgotten. He picked up the ball, then turned around to face Aomine with a wide smile.

“Watch this!”

As he watched the little redhead dribble the ball across the court, then fake to the left around an invisible wall (and then clumsily lose the ball for a second, but chasing right after it with determination), there was a strange kind of warmth in Aomine’s chest.

Not only did it appear as though Kagami had been training exactly the things that Aomine had told him to…but clearly, he cared a lot about his opinion, too. Otherwise he wouldn’t be so eager to show off what he’d been practicing, and how he’d improved (though slowly). Or would he? Perhaps it was just that he didn’t have his parents around to show off to…a feeling that Aomine knew all too well.

The warmth in his chest suddenly turned into a tight knot when he considered that last thought, and he shook off the troubling thoughts just soon enough to watch as Kagami threw the ball up at the hoop. It hit the rim and bounced back down to the ground, much to Kagami’s frustration, but Aomine actually deigned it with an acknowledging nod.

“Hey, look at that – you can actually hit the net.”

With a small pout, Kagami turned around to look at him, and Aomine realized that perhaps he had sounded a tad too sarcastic just then, and the look on the redhead’s face had him backpedaling quickly.

“I mean…I guess you did grow some then, no? You couldn’t do that last year.”

The pout turned into a small smile, and Kagami once again ran off to get the ball.

Aomine sighed. It was hard work to not accidentally make a child cry. He had totally forgotten about that. Then again, he _had_ been successful in not actually making the boy cry so far, and that was saying something for Aomine Daiki. The last time he had stared down a little kid for being in his way, the child had instantly burst into tears and ran off…

In that regard, Kagami seemed a lot easier to handle. Perhaps the child was so used to being on his own that he wasn’t easily scared; it wouldn’t have been unlike Aomine who had been looking after his own self for as long as he could remember.

“Yeah, you think so?”

“Sure,” Aomine shrugged noncommittally, but the bright, joyful smile he received in return told him that his reply was good enough.

“I will try really hard so I can grow as tall as you one day, Aomine!”

Now the blue-haired teen actually chuckled and held out one hand for the basketball. Kagami bounced it off the ground towards him and then watched his taller friend dribble the ball between both legs, like it was no big deal. The one time he’d tried that, it had…not ended well, to say the least. Just the thought made Kagami cross his feet awkwardly.

“You can’t _try_ to grow.”

“Of course I can. I’ve been trying really hard and it worked!”

Aomine smirked, catching the ball one-handedly before he shot it towards the hoop, watching as it went right through again, just as expected, but it still made Kagami’s eyes grow wide in awe.

“If you say so.”

There was little point in arguing with a 7-year-old about whether or not one could actually try to grow taller. If that were the case, then how come Kuroko was still so short? Or Akashi…not that he’d actually say so to their captain, lest he wanted to be stabbed…or worse.

He walked on over to grab the ball, throwing it back to Kagami so that he could get started on their usual warm-up drills; if he still remembered them. It was a little disconcerting that Aomine himself still remembered each and every exercise he would make the redhead do before their one-on-ones; if you could even call them one-on-ones when it was mostly just Aomine standing in Kagami’s path to the hoop, or Kagami trying to grab the ball from Aomine as he was dribbling it (which he had yet to succeed in even once).

The kid caught the ball and stared down at it, looking thoughtful for a couple of moments until his gaze met Aomine’s again, wide-eyed, curious, without a worry in the world…

“Do you think I’ll ever be as good as you?”

 _No_.

The word lingered on the tip of his tongue, but Aomine didn’t open his mouth to let it out.

Whether it was his inner voice that suspiciously sounded like Tetsu or Satsuki (or even both, at times) that told him he couldn’t go breaking a child’s heart and dreams, or whether it was his own subconscious and morals telling him that it wouldn’t be right, he wasn’t sure.

There was just something in those eyes that made Aomine think he shouldn’t, or maybe even couldn’t, dishearten the kid like that. Maybe he saw a little bit of his own younger self in those eyes…wide open to the world with curiosity and such spirit that was yearning for more. Wanting, no, needing to go places.

His lips moved into a lopsided smirk.

“Only if you keep training and trying to grow really hard.”

The reaction was instantaneous. The kid gave him his biggest and somehow most dangerous smile yet (even though his funny looking eyebrows kind of ruined it). His hands seemed to hold on to the ball more tightly as he gave a furious nod, his chest puffed out with determination.

“I will!”

* * * * *

“Hey, Aomine…”

“Hm?”

“What position do you play?”

It was an excruciatingly hot summer day. And though Aomine had had no intention of playing basketball today (especially after already being somewhat exhausted from afternoon practice, not the intensity of it, but rather the heat), he still had somehow wound up here on this court.

It had become such a habit that he had made his way there without even thinking about it. When he arrived, he had been surprised to see the little redhead already on the court for once, in clothes that didn’t look like his school uniform. His shots still hardly hit the rim of the hoop, but his dribbling was getting pretty good, if Aomine said so himself. For a child, that was.

This time around it had been Aomine who watched from the sideline how the redhead ran across the court and back, until Kagami noticed him standing there, a bright smile instantly appearing on his face.

According to the redhead he had gone straight home after school to get his basketball and come to the court for some practice. Aomine just nodded and walked over to the other side of the court where he usually put his stuff, and made himself comfortable. Well, as comfortable as you could get leaning against a chain link fence. He lazily continued to watch the redhead chase the ball back and forth, hitting it everywhere except through the hoop.

Only after he’d exerted all his energy did Kagami come over to sit next to him, using the sleeve of his shirt to wipe at his face, and posed this exact question.

“What do you think?” Aomine asked, not wanting to give the answer away too easily.

“Umm…I dunno…”

The redhead pouted thoughtfully, lightly bouncing the bright orange basketball (a present from his parents, he’d proudly announced to Aomine earlier), between his cross-legged knees.

“Well, what positions do you know, then?”

Now it looked like Kagami was trying really hard to remember something. He was sure he’d heard the older kids at his school talking about this during break time just today. It was a little amusing to watch, in Aomine’s opinion. Kagami’s nose and eyebrows were all scrunched up as if he was having a lot of difficulty remembering.

“Point Guard…”

Aomine nodded, holding up one finger to count.

“And?”

“Uh…shooter?”

“Shooting Guard really, but I’ll give you that one.”

Aomine held up a second finger, and decided to take pity on Kagami. It hadn’t occurred to him that, despite all the rules and techniques he’d already told the redhead about and that Kagami had all but gobbled up, they’d never once talked positions.

“Basically, there are five positions. Point Guards are usually fast and short…like you.”

He smirked teasingly and Kagami shot him a pouty glare, but did not interrupt him, clearly wanting to know more about the game, as he always did.

“They have to really see the whole court and be good at passing, you know? Then there’s the Shooting Guard. They’re on the offense and take a lot of shots, but they also have to defend the other team’s Shooting Guard from scoring. The Centers are the really tall ones. They-“

“Are you a Center?” Kagami interrupted this time, eyes wide with curiosity. “You’re tall!”

Aomine looked almost insulted by that assumption.

“Tch. What? No, lame. Our Center is like…this much taller than me.” His hand hovered in the air, about four inches above his own head, a guesstimate of how tall Murasakibara had grown in the meantime. The guy just didn’t seem to fucking stop growing. Kagami looked tremendously impressed, and nodded in silence for the teen to continue speaking.

“Where was I…yeah, Center. They’re usually the tallest on the team…not really sure what else they do,” he murmured, poking his pinky finger in his ear, using his other hand to keep count.

“Then, the Small Forward. No, it’s not about height… I think they’re the ones that just aren’t the best at all the other positions? Not tall or fast enough. They’re supposed to be good all-rounders. And lastly we have…the _Power Forward_.”

Just the way he said the words made Kagami lean forward a little bit. Anything with the word ‘power’ in it had to be _really_ cool. And guessing from the smug look he saw on Aomine’s face, he thought so, too.

“They’re the most powerful, and the best scorers. They can dunk well, but also score mid-range, sometimes they even shoot three-pointers. But they also have to be strong enough to guard against tall players from the other team. Really, they’re the most versatile, if you ask me.”

He crossed his arms over his chest, a small, proud smirk on his face when he saw how in awe the short redhead was.

“Are you a _power forward_ , Aomine?”

“Sure am.”

“Woah…”

The kid looked downright fascinated, so much in fact that Aomine nearly found himself a bit embarrassed; an emotion he was not at all used to.

“That is _so cool_!”

Aomine snorted and shook his head.

“Yeah, I guess.”

There was a thoughtful look on Kagami’s face again, and he stood up with the ball in hands, dribbling it between his legs – slowly and carefully, because he really didn’t feel like repeating the mistake he’d made when he’d tried this the first time.

“What position do you think I would play?”

The teen didn’t reply immediately. That was a good question. So far, he hadn’t thought of Kagami as an actual player that could be put in to fill a given position. Then again, it seemed too early still. For all he knew this child would grow up scrawny like Kuroko, or quick and nimble like Akashi. God forbid he’d grow as tall as Murasakibara. There wasn’t any way to place Kagami just yet.

“I don’t know... I guess time will show.”

It didn’t appear to be the answer the redhead was hoping for, as he was pouting, and momentarily lost control of the ball that ended up hitting him upside the butt, making him squeak and Aomine laugh out loud.

Yeah, Aomine had decided, being a coach wasn’t so bad at all.

* * * * *

Kagami wasn’t sure just when he noticed the shift in Aomine’s personality, or when it happened.

It must have come slowly, gradually. Their summers once again were spent without basketball practice.

Not that Kagami wouldn’t have wanted to, of course. He still found himself on ‘their’ court a couple of times every week, whether the sun was burning down hot on his skin, or whether there were dark grey clouds announcing an incoming storm. On those days, Kagami would end up racing home in a torrent and arrive fully drenched from head to toe.

He was practicing so much that Tatsuya had taken to calling him a ‘basketball-nut’. Kagami didn’t mind. Only with practice was he going to keep improving, and only then would he be able to be as great of a player as Aomine!

Despite his constant presence on the court, he didn’t see his taller friend even once all summer, much like the previous one. This one, somehow, felt even longer. And as happy as he was about Aomine’s return, he couldn’t help but notice how he was starting to act a little differently.

He’d still coach Kagami, give him tips, and watch him practice. But he wouldn’t join in any longer, not unless the redhead spent a couple of minutes begging for the teen to show him how it was done correctly. And even then, he would do it just once, then hand the ball over again.

Every time that Kagami passed the court on his way home, Aomine would either not be there, or he’d be lying on the concrete floor asleep, with his head propped up on his school bag and scrunched up uniform sweater for added comfort.

The redhead wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“Aomine?”

“Hm?”

The teen didn’t even as much as open his eyes at the question. It wasn’t as hot out anymore as it had been just a couple of weeks ago, and he was set on enjoying these late-summer evenings to the fullest. Even if they only consisted of him lying on a dirty court somewhere in the middle of nowhere while Kagami was practicing nearby.

“You’re 16 now, right?”

That made him crack an eye open and glance at the redhead now standing nearby, bouncing the ball from his left to his right hand. If this 8-year-old kid was about to call him old again…

“Yes.”

“So, what school year are you in?”

With a soft sigh, Aomine sat up, rubbing a hand over his short hair. Somehow, he got the feeling that this wasn’t going to be a short conversation.

“Third year of middle school.”

Kagami thought this answer through for a few seconds.

“What year is that?”

“Huh? Ninth grade…I go to high school next year.”

High school…that was still a long way to go for Kagami. Longer than he could imagine, really. He was in second grade now…so that would be another…7 years to go.

“So…middle school is seventh to ninth grade?”

“And high school is tenth to twelfth. Yes.”

It wasn’t something Kagami had thought about before, or that he’d had any type of measure for. All he knew was that, when he’d entered the second grade, the sixth graders had left. He hadn’t questioned where they had gone off to, but apparently, they had all gone to middle school. Now the redhead was wondering where that may be…

He paused his dribbling and moved closer to sit next to Aomine, his legs crossed and back leaning against the chain link fence, just like the teen was sat in that moment.

“What’s middle school like?”

Aomine shrugged, staring up at the deep orange sky.

“It’s still just school. There’s more work, I guess…but you get to join all kinds of club activities, like basketball.”

“Hmm…” Kagami hummed, and lifted his gaze so he, too, was staring up at the sky.

“What’s high school like?”

“I dunno,” Aomine stated, but when Kagami looked, his gaze had grown somehow wistful.

“Hopefully more challenging…”

* * * * *

“Kagami…?”

“Hm? Oh, hi, Aomine!”

“What are you doing here?”

It still wasn’t usual for the redhead to be here before Aomine, safe for the days when Tatsuya wasn’t available for playtime. But it was even more unusual for Kagami not to be up and playing with a basketball. In fact, Aomine couldn’t even see a basketball anywhere nearby.

Instead, he could only see Kagami, sat against the chain link fence with his knees pulled up, a textbook leaning against them and a pen held in his right hand.

At the sound of Aomine’s voice, he looked up, brows still scrunched up in immense concentration, but a smile immediately broke out on his face.

“Homework.”

“Homew-…why the _hell_ are you doing your _homework_ on a _basketball court_?” Aomine snorted, but made his way over to the redhead, a little bit curious for his reply. A look at the boy’s textbook told him he was working on his Math homework.

When he lifted his head, the look on Kagami’s face was somewhat sheepish.

“Can you help me?”

“No.”

Aomine shook his head as soon as the question was out, and he crossed his arms over his chest. Kagami’s lips shifted into their trademark pout, and his eyebrows furrowed upwards in what Aomine had now learned was a clear attempt at bribery. The puppy-eyes kind of bribery.

“Please?”

“Kid, I’m not skipping school just so I can do more work.”

Kagami’s head tilted to the side curiously, and Aomine instantly knew he had made a mistake admitting to this very impressionable child (who, for whatever reason, looked up to him as some kind of role model) that he was cutting class. And the fucking kid knew it, too.

“You skip school…?”

Shit.

“…no, never. Where’d you hear that? Just…gimme that.”

Grumbling, the teen sat down next to Kagami (who looked all too gleeful about his win), and took the textbook the redhead was holding. Granted, it was just second grader math; Aomine wasn’t _that_ stupid to not be able to handle this. Still, he felt like this was some kind of punishment for him (ironically) skipping his actual Math class.

“Ok…where are you having trouble?”

* * * * *

Ok, so Aomine felt bad for saying this, but…Kagami wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box. To his credit, he was a rather nice and kind kid, and he certainly didn’t lack in curiosity. Unfortunately for the teen, the kid was making it a habit of coming to him for any questions born of said curiosity. And the redhead didn’t just stick with his homework, either.

“Aomine?”

“What is it? –nope, keep dribbling.”

“Why is the sky blue?”

Pause.

“Uh…it’s the favorite color of the _Kami_.”

This response was followed by Kagami giggling and he stopped his dribbling, despite Aomine’s order.

“That’s not true! Why is it really blue?”

“Ok, hold on.” Shit, he’d learned about this. Why was that, again…something about scattered light? “It’s…got to do with the way that the light hits the molecules in the air…White light is all colors combined…and then blue is reflected the most out of the colors, so the sky appears blue.”

“…I don’t get it.”

Aomine snorted.

“Didn’t expect you to. You will when you’re older.”

“What about rainbows? How are they made?”

Ugh…

“Basically, the same principle…the light hits the rain, and it’s reflected from the rain drops. And then it’s always split the same way, that’s why you always have red on the outside, and purple on the inside.”

Once again, Kagami looked like he was thinking really hard, but he finally nodded, satisfied with that answer, and continued the dribbling exercise that Aomine had shown him earlier and that he was now trying to perfect. But alas, Aomine should have known this wasn’t the end of it. Once the redhead’s curiosity had been caught, there could be an endless sea of questions he wanted answered.

“Where do _we_ come from?”

“Huh?” This time around, Aomine found it hard not to laugh.

“Like…have humans always been here? Or where did we come from?”

“Now that’s really more of a philosophical question... You’ll learn all about that at school really soon.”

There was another small pause, before…

“So, where do babies come from, then?”

“ _That_ …is for when you’re _much_ older.”

* * * * *

“It’s _cold_ …”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Does that mean we have to stop playing soon…?”

“Yeah.”

Kagami pouted.

He hated the cold, despised it really, but if it meant he could keep practicing with Aomine, then he would have taken the cold any day. At least he’d thought so, because even with his scarf and his mittens on, he still felt really chilly today, standing there on the court and aimlessly bouncing the basketball. He would do a couple of free-throws that he was getting pretty good at during the past month (which was to say that around 3/10 would actually go through the net), because they didn’t require him racing up and down the court. And neither himself nor Aomine seemed in the mood for too much movement in the recently much colder weather.

But Kagami also really didn’t like the idea of their ‘winter break’, as he had taken to calling it, starting so soon. Summer had passed much too quickly and the winter months were Kagami’s least favorite time of the year to begin with. It was always dark and always cold, and when he wasn’t able to hang out with Tatsuya, more than likely Kagami would just be sitting at home. Alone.

It really wasn’t something that he was looking forward to, and his face was showing it.

To Aomine, this was something short of incomprehensible. With how little people (including most of his current teammates) seemed to like him, it was funny that a young child would be the one to take a liking to having him in his presence; if only for his usefulness in basketball coaching and his knowledge of second grade math and kanjis; even though he was of less help when it came to actually _writing_ the latter, seeing how he exclusively used katakana for all his writing even nowadays.

“Can’t we keep hanging out…?” Kagami’s voice was quiet, and so sad that Aomine honest to god felt somewhat bad for turning him down.

“I don’t think so, kid.”

“Why not?”

“Well…’cuz we both got stuff to do. You’ve got your friends. I’ve got my entrance exams to prepare for, if I wanna keep going to school.”

Kagami tilted his head in curiosity.

“I thought you didn’t like school!”

Aomine rolled his eyes in amusement.

“I _don’t_. But if I wanna keep playing basketball, I gotta keep going to school.” That’s what Satsuki had told him, anyway. Aomine was sure there would be other ways to get into the world of basketball, but he trusted his best friend’s judgment.

“Oh…ok…”

He didn’t look like he was okay, though. In fact, unless Aomine was a terrible judge of emotions (which, still he might be), Kagami still looked sad. Which he didn’t really need to care about; this was still just some random child, and Aomine shouldn’t have to feel responsible for him.

Except, somehow, he kind of did. He’d known the kid for well over a year now. Hell, he probably knew more about Kagami than he did about most of his own classmates. He knew his favorite colors, his favorite subject (PE, of course. This child had to have some sort of weird limitless energy, Aomine was almost sure of it). He knew who his best friend was, which kids in the class he disliked the most, even his favorite teacher.

And it wasn’t even like Aomine was trying to retain this information. Much like anything that Satsuki told him, it went in one ear and out through the other, but somewhere along the line, Kagami’s words must have been permanently recorded.

Aomine blamed his stupid, annoying puppy dog eyes.

Which, right now, once again gazed up at him as if Aomine could just say ‘winter go away’ and it would be spring again for them to practice to his heart’s content.

But alas, Aomine was no wizard. Life wasn’t always a bowl of cherries, and besides, there were way worse things than winter. Not that Kagami’s young mind would understand, even if Aomine tried to tell him so.

Just one thought came to mind.

“Well…you remember what you told me last year?”

Kagami blinked. And tilted his head to the side. Seriously, this kid looked more like a puppy than a child sometimes, especially as confused as he did right now. Aomine tried to help him.

“Something abooout…you improving and coming back to, hmm, what was it…?”

The child’s face lit up; fists clenched as he threw his arms up into the air.

“Coming back to beat you!”

Aomine snapped his fingers at him, lopsided smirk stretching out on his face.

“That’s it. But you know…I’m pretty good. You really think you can improve that much?”

“Yeah!”

“Alright, then. I’m counting on it.”

He reached out one large hand and ruffled Kagami’s hair, just because he knew by now that the redhead didn’t like it at all and would protest whenever he did so, and it always ended up making the teen laugh. It was no different this time around.

They both gathered their things and stepped away from _their_ court; Aomine heading left, Kagami to the right. Even when he had retreated to the corner of the street, Kagami was still waving both his arms in goodbye.

“Byeee Aomine! See you next year!”

Aomine snorted, not sure why that sounded as funny to him as it did, but he raised a hand for a short wave to let the redhead know he’d heard. Then he watched as the kid turned around and raced off down the street and out of view.

The small smile fell from his face, and his hand dropped back down to his side. Aomine turned around and walked down the other side of the street that would take him back home. His left hand dug around in his pants pocket and pulled out his phone. Snapping the screen open confirmed that he had no new messages, as expected. Not that he was hoping for anybody to text him.

Tetsu hadn’t been texting him after he’d told him not to pass to him anymore; they didn’t even talk during practice at this point, so there was no need for any texts. Satsuki probably was still mad at him for brushing her off earlier. And his parents, well…they’d stopped caring a long time ago.

The chilly breeze had him stuffing his phone back in his pocket, and then pull the sleeves of his coat over both hands. Winter was coming in fast, and Aomine wasn’t too thrilled about it. The only peace of mind it brought him was that this meant it was nearly time for him to switch schools.

There wasn’t even really any use in them going to Nationals this year. Aomine knew, whoever they were up against, they’d crush them to pieces. As they had done with all the other teams in the past two years, with increasing ferocity and no mercy.

But in high school, maybe things would be different. Maybe his opponents wouldn’t be a bunch of wussies that gave up the minute someone stronger (him) came along. He finally wouldn’t have to look at his teammates anymore; after all, Akashi had decided it was best for them all to attend different schools. Maybe there _was_ someone out there who could beat him…

Maybe for once, he’d be happy again.


End file.
